Wow! Thank you all for the replies! I'm feeling much better now. Inara's not quite as lean as Riggs, but pretty damned close. I think she looks great, but I just needed the extra reassurance. AAP, that was a great post and really made it crystal clear and very simple! Thank you!

"Remember - every time your dog gets somewhere on a tight leash *a fairy dies and it's all your fault.* Think of the fairies." http://www.positivepetzine.com"

Ok..well if that is what conditioned loks like ...both my babies are fat. They don't get as much hard core excercise as I'd like though...we take them to the inlaws to run on the weekends as we are in a town home, and regular walks don't tire them out. That plus our yard isn't fenced yet so the poor dears are leashed to go potty.

No, not at all. I just wanted to get across that though he is lean, he never really acts like he's desparate for food. Connor was when we first got him, so I have seen the difference between "I'm hungry" and "I'm starving" first hand.

as for the stack, it definately needs work, but thank you!

Michelle

Inside me is a thin woman trying to get out. I usually shut the bitch up with a martini.

I think your dogs just need a little more exercise to tone them up.
If it were me, I wouldn't have them loose any weight, just re-adjust it. I.E. focus on more fetch time and longer walks or bike rides etc

I would love to..the big problem is that I live in a place that has BSL. They have to be muzzled when out on a walk and I don't think it is fair to have to put them through that. They dont' enjoy their walks...just rub their faces on the ground and carry on. usually they walk just wonderfully on the lead...STeeler is getting over her pulling quite nicely. Until I can force myself to get them better adjusted to the muzzles (I hate people thinking they are mean animals..most people around here dont' even know they're pits) the best I have is running for 5 hours a day on the weekends. We play fetch and run around like idiots. Then they rest, I swim then start up again.

P.S Thanks . I love black and white too as most of my decor goes perfectlt with it, I get to have multiple pupper pics everywhere!

BTW...Herbie has loose skin...I don't know if he's still growing into it or lost weight. Any thoughts?

Last edited by blkngldbabe on June 1st, 2006, 7:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Oscar is 5 and still has loose skin all around his shoulders and up his neck In fact.... I sometimes use his scruff in leu of a collar if he's naked, he doesn't care at all, pretty well reacts the same way...

This was helpful for me too because I noticed since being on Raw Knuckles has gotten thin. In fact, my husband took a video of him to show my groomer/trainer when picking up Teddy after being groomed. She said he looked way too thin. I also think he grew again and he got really long.

You'll also note a HUGE difference between a well conditioned dog and a truly skinny dog is the coat condition. A well conditioned dog will still show a nice, shiny, full coat, whereas a starved dog will have a poor coat, which is also illustrated in AAP's post. You can also look to the eyes...shiny, full of life = healthy...dull, withdrawn look = more likely to be skinny.

Personally, I don't think every pit bull needs to be conditioned to the point that Riggs is. Most pit bulls are house pets, and there is really no need to have that dog as toned and as...um...dieted...as your competition/working pit bull. Of course you want your dog to be lean and healthy, but unless he really LIKES the conditioning process, I don't see the point in it for the average couch warmer. Hence the whole point of the "keep" back during fighting days...dogs were kept on the chain and for the most part just hung out unless they were being prepared for a fight, which is when they'd start being conditioned.

As far as MY personal opinion goes, I like to see rib, but I DON'T like to see vertebrae. Of course, depending on the dogs position, one or two (or more) might be visible, but if the dog is just standing there and his spine is popping out, I'm feeding him! And, it goes without saying that some dogs just ARE that way, regardless of whether they are worked or not, but I would NOT work/diet a dog to that point.

No, I don't think every dog should be as lean as Riggs, I don't even think Riggs should be as lean as Riggs is. but even if the dog is a total couch potato they shouldn't be fat. Ruby doesn't do anything that Ruby doesn't want to, but you can still see her last couple ribs. It's not good for any dog, regardless of energy/activity level, to be hauling extra pounds around.

Michelle

Inside me is a thin woman trying to get out. I usually shut the bitch up with a martini.

Last fall I went to an adoption fair at the local race track. There were a handful of different racing kennels there with the dogs that they were retiring. Racing weight for a Greyhound means really thin, you can see almost all of the ribs and backbone. There was this one kennel where the dogs were SO beefy, as in muscular, their haunches were rock hard and huge, and still had normal ribs and backbone showing, just extremely muscular and toned. There was another kennel there who's dogs also had ribs and backbones showing, but the muscle tone was hardly noticable, the fur fell funny, and the hip bones were too apparent. From looking at those dogs I just shook my head and said "they at least have worms, if not a lot else going on with them."

So even though they both were technically at racing weight, there was a huge difference between the muscled and toned kennel and the "essentially on the egde of emaciated" kennel. It was pretty sad. Trust me, there isn't much that can make your stomach turn more than an emaciated Greyhound since they already look emaciated to most people to begin with.

"All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another." -Anatole France